How to Destroy a Province and Jobs [Playing Three Card Monte in Ontario]

Once upon a time there was this beautiful and prosperous land of many lakes and happy hardworking peoples.

In that wonderful place, opportunities were unlimited and in that fantastic place, not a care existed and energy was abundant.

That abundant and seemingly unending energy was called electricity and it lit all homes and powered the wheels of industry. And those wheels of industry created unlimited opportunities for everyone who lived in that wondrous place and made all dreams possible.

In fact, that marvelous and awe-inspiring abundance of energy and prosperity had fully evolved to the point where, through engineering and creative genius that energy was being produced by numerous means. It had initially been produced through the wonders of water movement through generating turbines at places such as Niagara Falls.

From that pioneering process, the energy produced took its name. And that name was hydro-electricity. And before long ingenuity found newer methods such as coal fired turbines and then nuclear reactors produced even more electricity so that everyone could “live better electrically”.

And in that enchanted land, the virtues of abundance of prosperity became known and famous throughout the world. The enchantment of abundant electrical supply created jobs because corporations came into that enchanted land and built factories that made many things and created good paying jobs. That energy source created opportunities for down-trodden people from many lands to move to that enchanted land and seek a better life for themselves and their children.

That enchanted land was Ontario where the abundance of hydro-electricity was broadly touted in government paid advertising aimed at attracting new industries to locate in Ontario where life was good.

And then a dark prince obtained control of the enchanted land and things changed and those changes reversed everything.

The Dark Prince Takes Power

His name was Prince Dalton and he too was fascinated by power though that interest was merely personal power. Being somewhat slow minded and surrounded by a not-too-clever group of friends who set about re-educating people that good was bad and that science was regressive.

Through years of growth and progressive science, those early water powered turbines no longer could keep up with increased demands for hydro-electricity this place called Ontario was now operating coal powered generators such as the Nanticoke generator near Lake Erie. Other coal powered sites such as Lambton and Atikokan in northwestern Ontario were keeping up with demands.

The mainstay of Ontario’s electricity generation, however was nuclear generated electricity originating from 6 nuclear generators located at Pickering Ontario (near Lake Ontario) and another four nuclear reactors at Darlington Ontario.

Plans were under way to expand nuclear production capacity. Less than a decade ago, to assure continued prosperity plans had been created to build additional nuclear capacity and refurbish existing nuclear powered generation sites. In summary fashion, the destructive might of the Dark Prince wielded authority.

Despite the advances of science and innovation, the coal powered generating facilities were closed. Rather than taking advantage of technologies that would have eliminated or reduced most of the pollutants resulting from coal burning processes, with the swipe of a pen, the Dark Prince simply ended use of coal. As unsophisticated as any action is that denies scientific advancement, the coal powered generation sites were closed. And, throughout the process, the Dark Prince saw to it that his actions would be reported as noble and good. Others would (and did) disagree pointing out that those actions were the equivalent of tearing down your home because a carpet was dirty.

The Fading end of Nuclear Power and Provincial Prosperity

Dark Prince Dalton deigned that we should also not use nuclear energy to produce electricity. In a twisted bout of ill-logic of puritan proportions, nuclear energy was determined to be the wrong choice for electricity generation. Though, it could be (and has been) argued that nuclear generated electricity is ideal in that it is not dependent on whether the sun is shining or a wind is blowing.

Plans to not pursue new nuclear facilities at Darlington Ontario were announced by the government of the Dark Prince in October 2013. According to the Dark Prince’s decree; “Darlington new build project would not be a part of Ontario’s long term energy plan”

The realm of the Dark Prince had expanded and by 2015 now held authority in Ottawa where Federal Minister of the Environment and Climate Change in February 2016 single-handedly halted development of the much needed new nuclear generator planned for the Bruce Peninsula along the eastern shore of Lake Huron.

Liberal Electricity Alchemy takes Shape

Behavioral scientists have long labored over an accurate definition of “stupidity” . Stupidity manifests itself by certain characteristics such as:

Lack of Common Sense

Poor Inference

Poor Judgement

Lack of Wisdom or Depth

Inability to see blind spots in our own behaviour.

Pattern of over-classifying others in groups.

Pattern of over-generalizing things or events in life.

Pattern of over hyping generalizations.

Inability to develop foresight from hindsight.

I submit that destruction of a viable energy plan as has taken place under the reign of the Dark Prince is akin to drilling a hole in the bottom of a good functioning boat in order to drain water from a small leak. Though quite dramatic, whatever alleged environmental concerns might have existed could have been and should have been remedied through science. The consequences of bad decisions and inept operational management have caused a once great economically power has caused Ontario to become a have not province. The sparkling example for the rest of a great nation has evolved into Ontario becoming “the poorest kid on the street”.

Though government publication report Ontario’s unemployment rate as hovering around 7%, everyone knows that statistics can be and often are deceptive. Though 7% is a terrible number in terms of unemployment; that number only includes those actively seeking jobs. It omits thousands of 50 year olds who have simply given up on job searches because they have learned that they are no longer “suitable”. I would posit than the real unemployment rate in Ontario ranges between 15 and 18% and exceeds 25% in communities that have manufacturing jobs leave and relocate to other places as a result of high electricity costs in Ontario.

Over 300,000 good paying, full time manufacturing jobs are gone from Ontario during the reign of the Dark Prince. In June (2016) alone almost 6,000 manufacturing jobs found new homes. Manufacturing executives have been complaining (for some time) about soaring electricity costs eroding the bottom line and making Ontario manufacturing sites less feasible.

In Brampton, Ontario, the home of an ultra modern manufacturing investment by auto giant Chrysler-Fiat, CEO Sergio Marchionne has been calling on the premier to slow down the implementation of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan and cap and trade and take a close look at how it’s going to impact the auto sector.

The results of Marchionne’s reasonable concerns have fallen on deaf ears. The ominous employer costs for a badly thought-out Ontario Retirement Pension Plan have simply been moved the Federal government with those costs being blended with (and added to) EMPLOYER portions of the Canada Pension Plan.

Cap-and-trade is coming. Due to arrive in 2018. It is a carbon tax that will change the operational costs for industry and take away about $2,500 from each person in Ontario. Not one cent of that tax can possibly change the weather or reduce any carbon foot print as much as the costs.

Define it any way you wish: lack of common sense; poor judgment; overly generalizing a problem that might not exist or lack of foresight. I choose to describe it as what it is : STUPIDITY”.

Ontario Power Generating Authority

They are busy down at Queen’s Park trying to sweep the dirt under the carpets. Ontario already has the highest cost per kilowatt hour of ANY jurisdiction in NORTH AMERICA. The job losses and pathway of destroyed families is epidemic. Senior and those other also living on fixed incomes are increasingly being forced make hard/difficult choices to either heat (their residence) or eat. All of this takes place while consumer prices sky-rocket and job losses mount.

It is fool hardy to measure job gains in precarious employment and part time work as been even remotely equivalent to good paying, full time manufacturing jobs with fringe benefits. Any person who would willingly trade his/her good paying full time job in manufacturing job for a precarious position as a retail clerk is genuinely too stupid to deserve sympathy. The hundreds and thousands of more mature residents who have lost jobs due to the handiwork of the Dark Prince (and the new Dark Princess) deserve much better employment situations than to act as greeters at the local Walmart.

What to Expect From Politicians and What to Demand

Don’t come to me and ask for my vote because of the hundreds of Lieberal scandals over the past decade. While I agree that the scandals took place, there is nothing in that argument to assure me that you will do differently.

My sense is that we are all tired about hearing about the mess that the Lieberals, the Dark Prince and the Dark Princess have made. My sense is ALSO that the truth stings in that (after all) some people trusted the Lieberals sufficiently to permit them over a decade in authority and thereby enabled them.

Instead, talk to me about how you can change the plight of Ontario’s residents. I’d be more than happy to learn of any plans to rebuild the fossil fuel and coal plants utilizing cleaner technology. Absolutely, I’d be delighted to hear how you will get us back into the position of prominence through utilization of our new generation nuclear reactors developed by Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. (the AECL Candu reactors).

It is the right time to begin shining hope again into the lives of folks in Ontario.

Oh, and by –the-way, dear Santa please see to it the Ontario’s Green Energy plan is scrapped. It’s a real pity that those hideous and dangerous wind turbines are causing huge health risks or that the principal manufacturer broke its contract conditions to build a manufacturing facility.

We are all tired of the game of Three-Card-Monte that the Lieberals have been playing with Ontario’s energy production. There is NO money card on the table and to permit another Lieberls government to simply rearrange to existing cards means more tough times ahead.

Insanity means doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In just over a year from now, we can determine if Ontario voters have progressed past impulsive stupidity or are genuinely insane.

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Published by: lloydfournier

Lloyd is the founder of Thunderbird Rising (Thunderbird rising.com) and the recent recipient of a Humanitarian Award, an author (novels) and a freelance writer. His drill down style of writing is a throw back to classic journalism - completely objective and well researched. His work presents the reader opportunity to rethink issues.
View all posts by lloydfournier

2 thoughts on “How to Destroy a Province and Jobs [Playing Three Card Monte in Ontario]”

Lloyd, I really enjoy your posts. Your little bio is very accurate. You wrote this article like a fairy tale, I am very sad it didn’t end on a happy note. With the princess in power and with the backing of the boy wonder, I can’t see any hope for Ontario.